Leash Biosciences, an AI/ML-native biotechnology company utilizing machine learning to solve medicinal chemistry, announced the completion of a $9.3 million seed financing round to advance its goal of transforming medicinal chemistry through modern computational methods and massive biological data collection. The oversubscribed round was led by Springtide Ventures with participation from MetaPlanet, Top Harvest Capital, Mitsui Global Investment, MFV Partners, Recursion CEO and co-founder Chris Gibson, and Recursion co-founder Blake Borgeson.
Leash aims to develop a foundational and generalizable machine-learning model of medicinal chemistry that can accurately predict small molecule drug candidates for any protein in silico and interactions between any protein and any chemical. Leash produces bespoke, expansive datasets of protein targets binding to chemicals to make this happen. So far, the company has physically generated over 17 billion high-quality protein-chemical interaction measurements. Leash plans to screen 500+ protein targets against millions of machine learning-designed, proprietary chemicals by 2025 at the company’s new Salt Lake City headquarters.
To advance its machine learning engine, Leash will use the funding to scale its data collection and computational capabilities. And the company’s ML engine will also support advancing multiple internal therapeutics programs toward in vivo studies.
Leash’s team comprises TechBio veterans with expertise in AI/ML, biology, and chemistry. And five of the company’s six employees are former Recursion employees with experience building and scaling transformational drug discovery platforms. The team has experience at Eikon Therapeutics, Myriad Genetics, insitro Biosciences, LinkedIn, Stripe, and other leading technology and biotechnology players.
KEY QUOTES:
“ML improvements in chess, Go, image recognition, language translation, text generation, and protein folding all were driven by the collection and curation of massive datasets. We believe a similar strategy will revolutionize how we approach medicinal chemistry. We are thrilled to have the support of this group of top-tier investors who share our vision for transforming drug discovery through an ML-first approach.”
– Ian Quigley, CEO of Leash Biosciences
“Leash’s platform stands apart with its combined excellence in machine learning, experimental biology, and medicinal chemistry. We are excited to back this exceptional team as they leverage cutting-edge tech to tackle the toughest drug discovery challenges.”
– Claire Smith, Lead Investor at Springtide Ventures
“Leash sits at the forefront of innovating the next paradigm of AI-driven, scalable, and rapid drug design. We are honored to partner with them as thought leaders in this space.”
– Alexey Morgunov of MetaPlanet
“By providing participants with access to such a comprehensive dataset, we are empowering the global scientific community to develop innovative solutions that could revolutionize the way we identify potential drug candidates.”
– Ian Quigley, Leash Bio CEO
